Former Chinese Army Anti-terror Expert Appointed As Party Leader In Xinjiang's Capital

Photo illustration of Xinjiang province. (Wikimedia Commons/Anagoria)

JAKARTA - A former Chinese soldier (PLA) with extensive anti-terrorism experience, was confirmed as party leader in Urumqi, the capital of China's Xinjiang region, occupied by the Uighur Muslim ethnic minority.

Yang Fasen, appeared in his new role for the first time alongside 14 other members of the new Standing Committee for the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, at the close of a regional party congress on Monday this week, according to the official Xinjiang broadcaster.

Yang will serve under Chen Quanguo, who is expected to continue as party leader in the region until next year's 20th national party congress. Chen last week used his opening remarks to urge all party officials in Xinjiang to "remain vigilant against terrorism and in maintaining stability" in their daily work, according to the official Xinjiang Daily.

Xie Maosong, a senior research fellow at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said Xinjiang had become the first region in the country to complete a comprehensive succession plan for his party leadership. Demonstrates "great strategic value" for the development and overall security of China's vast western region.

"For now, it seems that Beijing wants Chen Quanguo to remain a ballast in Xinjiang. It also wants the young officials deployed to Xinjiang to learn from (him), because the continued stability of Xinjiang is very important to national plans in western China, especially the circle of Chengdu-Chongqing economy (development strategy)," he said, citing SCMP Oct. 27.

The Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Communist Party now consists of 10 ethnic Han Chinese, four Uighurs and one Kazakh. It is one of the largest among mainland China's 31 provincial-level administrations, which usually have 13 committee members.

The size of the party's Standing Committee underscores Beijing's emphasis on the region, especially since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, according to a professor of law and politics at the University of Xinjiang.

The composition of the committee also restores the ethnic balance of the party's top leadership that has been maintained in recent decades, the professor said.

"Xinjiang is China's border to Afghanistan, and the country's backyard in supporting its troops against India. Beijing is very concerned about all potential security risks that may arise from all recent events," explained the professor, who asked not to be named. named for the sensitivity of his comments.

"That's why many senior cadres from all over China were deployed to the hot seat in Xinjiang and Tibet," he continued.

"This is also an indirect encouragement to ethnic minority cadres, reminding them that promotion paths are open for those who show persistence in carrying out the party's ethnic and religious policies, and fighting separatism and terrorism," he explained.

Two weeks before Yang's appointment, his predecessor Xu Hairong was transferred to the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in the southwest. Yang became the youngest regional vice chairman in Xinjiang in March 2021, after serving as party chief in Hotan prefecture in southwest Xinjiang for three years.

Yang began his career as a soldier in Xinjiang, where he was stationed in the PLA's nuclear test support unit. He later served in the government of the Aksu prefecture in the midwest region neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

He caught Beijing's attention a year after his promotion in 2014 to party chairman in Kuqa, Aksu region, when he caught exposing the terrorist group and arrested 30 of its members.

Yang is also reportedly on a "wanted list" circulated by the East Turkestan Independence Movement (ETIM,) which Beijing holds responsible for a series of violent terrorist attacks in Xinjiang.